Non-Cong parties sweep 3 LS bypolls, Cong counters HJC

New Delhi, May 25 (UNI) Non-Congress parties swept three Lok Sabha byelections as Congress countered the challenge of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal's Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), by winning two out of the three Assembly bypolls in Haryana today.

The HJC was reduced to Adampur with former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal retaining the seat.

The BJP retained the Hamirpur LS seat in Himachal Pradesh, Shiv Sena again won from Thane in Maharashtra and NCP retained the Tura parliamentary seat in Meghalaya.

The bypolls for three LS and four Assembly seats were held on May 22.

The Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance retained the Amritsar (South) assembly seat in Punjab with coalition nominee Inderbir Singh Bularia winning by a margin of over 22,233 votes.

The BJP retained the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat with its candidate Anurag Thakur winning the byelection with a record margin of about 1.75 lakh votes. Mr Thakur is the son of HP Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.

In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena defeated the Nationalist Congress Party by a margin of 90,872 votes and retained the Thane Lok Sabha seat.

Shiv Sena's Anand Paranjpe secured 462,766 votes after the final round of counting while his nearest rival Sanjeev Naik of the NCP received 371,894 votes.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) retained Tura Parliamentary seat in Meghalaya, defeating the Congress by 99,856 votes, creating a record of having four members from the same family holding a public office in a state.

In the Amritsar (south) assembly seat, Mr Bularia, who received 43,495 votes, defeated his nearest rival Navdeep Goldie of the Congress, who got 21,262 votes.

Punjab Congress chief Rajinder Kaur Bhattal constituted a five-member committee to ascertain the factors responsible for the party's defeat in Amritsar (South) Assembly seat.

''The committee will closely study the large scale mal-practices indulged in by the Akali-BJP combine and its impact on the result of Amritsar South Byelection,'' a party release stated.

''The committee will also survey the constituency by closely interacting with the local leaders, workers and voters to ascertain the factors responsible for the result.'' The members of the committee are Naseeb Singh Gill, Ex-Dy Speaker Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Bir Devinder Singh, Ex-Dy Speaker Punjab Vidhan Sabha, R R Bhardwaj, Ex-Dy Chairman Punjab Planning Board, Lt Col C D Singh Kamboj, Ex-Chairman Punjab Health Systems Corporation and Rakesh Ahir, Ex-Dy Principal Secretary Chief Minister.

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